Pope, Other Religious Leaders Issue Pre-COP26 Appeal On Climate Change

Reuters - Philip Pullella

Pope Francis takes part in the "Faith and Science: Towards COP26" meeting with other religious leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November in Britain, at the Vatican, October 4, 2021. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS

Summary Appeal calls for net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible Global temperature rise should be limited to 1.5 degrees C. Pope is expected to attend start of Glasgow meeting COP26 must respond to "unprecedented ecological crisis"

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis and other religious leaders made a joint appeal on Monday for next month's U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) to offer concrete solutions to save the planet from "an unprecedented ecological crisis".

The "Faith and Science: Towards COP26" meeting brought together Christian leaders including Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, as well as representatives of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism and Jainism.

"COP26 in Glasgow represents an urgent summons to provide effective responses to the unprecedented ecological crisis and the crisis of values that we are presently experiencing, and in this way to offer concrete hope to future generations," the pope said.

"We want to accompany it with our commitment and our spiritual closeness," he said in an address which he gave to participants instead of reading out in the Vatican's frescoed Hall of Benedictions so that others had more time to speak.

The appeal, which described climate change as a "grave threat", was handed to Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and Britain's Alok Sharma, president of COP26 in Glasgow.

"The faith leaders who have come here today represent around 3/4 of the world's population. That is by any measure a significant percentage of people across the globe and that's why their voice matters so much," Sharma said after the meeting, which was organised by the Vatican, Britain and Italy.

'War On Creation'

Welby, spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans, called for a "global financial architecture which repents of its past sins", including changes in tax rules to promote green activity.

"We have in the past 100 years declared war on creation... Our war against the climate affects the poorest among us," Welby said.

The appeal urges all governments to adopt plans to help limit the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as soon as possible.

Wealthier countries must take the lead in reducing their own emissions and in financing poorer nations' emission reductions, it said.

"We plead with the international community, gathered at COP26, to take speedy, responsible and shared action to safeguard, restore and heal our wounded humanity and the home entrusted to our stewardship," said the appeal, which followed months of online meetings among the 40 or so religious leaders.

Pope Francis takes part in the "Faith and Science: Towards COP26" meeting with other religious leaders ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November in Britain, at the Vatican, October 4, 2021. Vatican Media/­Handout via REUTERS

Several participants stressed that no nation could go it alone.

"If one nation sinks, we all sink," said Rajwant Singh, a Sikh leader from the United States, who sang a poem for the participants.

In his written address, Francis said cultural and religious differences should be seen as a strength, not a weakness, in defending the environment.

"Each of us has his or her religious beliefs and spiritual traditions, but no cultural, political or social borders or barriers prevent us from standing together," he said.

The Vatican's foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, told Reuters on Sunday he hoped Monday's meeting could "raise ambitions" on what can be achieved at Glasgow.

Scotland's bishops said in July that the pope would attend the opening of COP26, health permitting. A decision is expected in the next few days.

Francis, 84, strongly supports the goals of the 2015 U.N. Paris accord to reduce global warming. He told young people at the weekend that theirs was "perhaps the last generation" to save the planet.

U.S. President Joe Biden returned the United States to the Paris accords after his predecessor Donald Trump pulled it out. Biden and the pope are expected to meet at the Vatican at the end of October.

Links

• (AU) More Than 100 Australian Faith Groups Have Teamed Up To Demand Greater Action On Climate Change
• 42 Catholic Institutions To Divest From Fossil Fuels, Bring Total To Over 200
• 'Buddha Would Be Green': Dalai Lama Calls For Urgent Climate Action
• Dalai Lama Calls For Unified Global Action On Climate Change
• What Does Islam Say About Climate Change And Climate Action?
• 'No Faith In Coal': Religious Leaders Urge Scott Morrison To Take Climate Action
• Climate Change Is A Top Spiritual Priority For These Religious Leaders
• (CNET) Climate Change: COP26 Is The Biggest Conference In The World. Here's Why It Matters

(AU SMH) PM Must Find A Way To Fight Warming While Appeasing Nats

Sydney Morning Herald - Editorial

The clock is ticking for Prime Minister Scott Morrison on whether he can develop a climate change policy to take to the Glasgow conference in November that is ambitious enough to be vaguely credible without being so ambitious that it tears the Coalition apart.

The tension within the Coalition on the issue has burst into the open in recent weeks, driven by Liberal MPs in inner-city seats that could be threatened at the next election by pro-climate action independents like Zali Steggall in Warringah.

Climate policy

While the 2050 battle rages in Australia, the world is talking 2030

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Sydney MPs Dave Sharma and Trent Zimmerman among others want the government to take to Glasgow a firm commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, and to increase 2030 reductions in line with global expectations.

At present, Australia is unique among wealthy nations in not increasing its 2030 targets.

At the other extreme, Nationals such as senator Matt Canavan think climate change is rubbish and oppose any further commitments.

The position of Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is hard to follow, but he seems ready to accept further climate commitments providing they are sweetened with some nice deals for his voters, such as funding for an inland rail line.

Amid this confusion, Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie has made the vital point that any decision must be more than a headline and a few bullet points and must also include a detailed plan.

Mr Morrison has all along justified his refusal to commit to 2050 because he says he wants to have a clear plan for how to reach that target.

His ministers have stuck resolutely to this line, as though it was not their job to formulate such a plan.

Clearly, he is concerned that a detailed plan, which would have to make explicit the timetable for closing down coal mines and other fossil-fuel technologies, would only restart the squawking in the Nationals’ barnyard.

Mr Morrison has been so paralysed between these poles that he has not decided whether to attend the Glasgow summit at all. Some of his MPs suggest his absence would barely be noticed.

This is clearly not the case. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made it clear that the success of the Glasgow talks is crucial to the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming from crossing catastrophic trigger points within reach.

Glasgow summit

On the frontline of global warming, south-east Asia’s dawdling jeopardises net zero

Australia’s closest friends, including AUKUS allies the United Kingdom and the United States have said tackling climate change is a top priority.

 “I would dearly love the Australian Prime Minister to come,” summit president, British Minister of State Alok Sharma told the Herald, emphasising that a net zero by 2050 goal was no longer enough and that nations had to increase their 2030 goals.

He noted that Australia was one of the world’s major economies, and said he hoped it would embrace emissions reductions of 45 to 50 per cent by 2030.

Australia has yet to update the 26 to 28 per cent 2030 first announced by Tony Abbott, and Mr Morrison is yet to even make his “preference” for net zero by 2050 a hard target.

While accepting Mr Morrison might be preoccupied with a looming federal election, the Herald urges him to use the summit as an opportunity to start thinking long term about one of the greatest threats the world is facing.

The evidence presented by the IPCC in its sixth assessment report in August that the world is warming fast, that climate change is already causing devastation, and that we have very little time to arrest its course before we may lose complete control of it is irrefutable.

Equally, every year, it is becoming clearer that Mr Morrison was wrong to claim during the 2019 election that the ALP’s promise to reach net zero by 2050 was “reckless”.

The falling cost of new renewable energy technologies backed up by battery storage makes them more than competitive with coal-fired power. Electric vehicles and better public transport can replace petrol engines.

Corporates call for action

The global finance, banking and insurance sector is crying out for rapid action and the Liberal Party would do well to listen to what has always been a key part of its constituency.

In NSW, Environment Minister Matt Kean has demonstrated that climate policy can be developed and debated in economic rather than environmental terms, and that action can stimulate economic activity rather than dampen it.

NSW says its emissions reduction drive will attract about $12 billion of investments across the economy by 2030, two-thirds of which is expected to flow into regional communities.

World governments, institutions and trading blocs have now made it clear they will no longer tolerate climate inaction.

Mr Morrison can either attend Glasgow with a credible contribution or he can watch from the sidelines as our peers craft the rules of the new global economy.

Links - Editorials

• (AU The Age) News Corp’s Climate Change Shame
• (AU SMH) Northern Hemisphere’s Awful Summer Demands Climate Action
• (AU) Passionate Young Voices Demand To Be Heard On Climate Crisis
• Editorial: Climate Change Remains The Greatest Crisis Of Our Crisis-Filled Era
• (USA) Joe Biden Takes Climate Change Seriously
• (AU) Editorial: Labor's Battle Over Climate Change Action
• (AU) Our World Is Facing Irreversible Destruction – And Still There's No Urgency In Australian Climate Policy
• The Observer View On The Climate Catastrophe Facing Earth
• The Guardian View On Coronavirus And The Climate Crisis: Seize This Chance

(AU The Age) ‘Do More’: COP26 President Urges Morrison To Make Climate Top Priority

The Age - Bevan Shields

London: The minister in charge of next month’s crunch Glasgow climate summit has challenged Australia to nearly double its 2030 emissions reduction target and urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to attend the talks in person.

Alok Sharma, the president of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, framed Morrison’s participation as a test of Australia’s friendship with Britain, warning the ravages of global warming cannot be avoided unless world leaders make Glasgow their top priority.

COP26 President Alok Sharma outside Downing Street. Credit: Getty

“I would dearly love the Australian Prime Minister to come,” Sharma said in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

“I can understand that every leader will have to take into account what is going on domestically but COP26 really matters and we want to see as many world leaders as possible.

“You’re some of our closest mates in the world, and we need you by our side to demonstrate the unity of purpose that is going to be really essential at this summit.”

Sharma, a cabinet minister who was elevated to the COP26 presidency by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson earlier this year, has been rallying support for a new pact that would bind the world to deeper emissions cuts, a faster phase-out of coal and more cash for poorer nations.

Morrison has not decided whether to fly to Glasgow but is preparing to take to cabinet and backbench MPs a formal policy of net-zero emissions by 2050. He is also under pressure to lift Australia’s existing goal of cutting pollution by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030, although that will be much harder to find agreement on.

A story 300 million years in the making, from its beginnings as prehistoric rotting plants to the world's dirtiest little fuel.

Warning the world was at a “critical juncture”, Sharma said embracing net zero by 2050 was not enough. He cited the UK’s goal of slashing dangerous carbon emissions by at least 68 per cent by 2030 and Japan’s promise of a 46 to 50 per cent cut.

“Australia is a major world economy,” Sharma said. “And if you compare to where other major world economies are, I hope that we could get to 45 to 50 per cent from Australia.

“That would mean they’d be comparable with other major economies in the world.”

Labor took a 45 per cent target by 2030 to the 2019 federal election – a policy the government claimed would take a “wrecking ball” to the economy. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese has since called Labor’s pledge “a mistake”.

But the NSW Liberal government last week promised to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030, building on the same policy unveiled by the Victorian Labor government earlier this year.

Sharma said he has had candid conversations with the Australian government over the need to make much deeper cuts before the end of the decade.

“I say to them basically what I say to everyone, which is that we need to do more. If we want to ensure that we are at a point of net zero by the middle of the century, then we have to have ambitious 2030 emission-reduction targets which align with that goal.”

Climate policy

While the 2050 battle rages in Australia, the world is talking 2030

A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in August found a 45 per cent cut by 2030 was essential to meeting the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.

“But on the current trajectory, we will see an increase of 16 per cent in emissions by 2030 rather than a reduction,” Sharma said. A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said Australia would take part in the COP26 summit and had a strong record of “meeting and beating” its emissions reduction commitments.

“We are working closely with the UK on the technology advances that will be needed for the world to transition to a net zero economy. Technology not taxes is the way to tackle climate change, keep the lights on and keep people in jobs. This will continue to be at the heart of Australia’s response.”

The government has promised to release an updated 2030 projection and its long-term strategy ahead of the Glasgow meeting.

The more ambitious action from NSW and Victoria could help the government lift its 2030 target of a 26 to 28 per cent cut to something approaching 35 per cent, but the politics within the Coalition is fraught and most cabinet ministers still do not know what Morrison is planning just three weeks out from the Glasgow summit.

Sharma said the urgency of the climate crisis warranted bold decisions from Australia.

“Australia is a great friend, and I really want one of my closest mates to come to my party and I want them to sing the same songs,” he said.

“And that in a climate context means more ambition on cutting emissions and it means more support in terms of financing for developing countries.”

Asked whether it was possible to achieve net-zero emissions without a price on carbon – which Morrison and Albanese are opposed to – Sharma stressed the international landscape was shifting rapidly.

“I mean, even China now has an emissions trading scheme,” he said.

“It is internationally acknowledged that countries are going to have to domestically and internationally address the whole issue of carbon pricing and carbon leakage – every country will have to get there.

“And so my advice to any country is to start to think about this now.”

Sharma also thanked the Morrison government and Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor for assisting Pacific islands attendees with travel to the Glasgow event.

More than 20,000 people are expected to arrive in the Scottish city during the first two weeks of November.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made climate change a key plank of his leadership. Credit: Getty

Johnson recently said the gathering would be held “in the full glare of the global spotlight”.

“And when the summit ends, when most of the world has committed to decisive, game-changing action, it will be clear to all which of us has lacked the courage to step up,” he said.

“The world will see, and your people will remember, and history will judge.”

Links

• Adapt And Grow: Australia Should Grasp The Positives Of Climate Change
• (BBC) Climate Change: Stop Smoke And Mirrors, Rich Nations Told
• (CNN) Australia's Climate Policy Is Being Dictated By A Former Accountant In A Cowboy Hat
• (AU SMH) While The 2050 Battle Rages In Australia, The World Is Talking 2030
• (CNET) Climate Change: COP26 Is The Biggest Conference In The World. Here's Why It Matters
• (The Guardian) The Climate Crisis Has Sparked An Economic Arms Race – And Australia Cannot Afford To Stay Idle

(AU New Daily) Road To Net Zero: What The Rest Of The World Thinks About Australia’s Climate Policy

New Daily -  Zac Crellin

Leaders around the world have slammed Australia's stance on climate change. Photo: TND

Australia is becoming a pariah on the world stage when it comes to climate policy.

From initially refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, to remaining dependent on coal, successive Australian governments have repeatedly  adopted policies that put them at odds with their foreign counterparts.

Ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, here’s what world leaders and environmentalists have said about Australia’s climate change track record.

Sir David Attenborough has blasted Australia over its continued use of fossil fuels. Photo: Getty

Sir David Attenborough

British environmentalist and documentary filmmaker Sir David Attenborough has repeatedly slammed Australia’s climate policy in recent years, including on Triple J Hack in 2019.

"You are the keepers of an extraordinary section of the surface of this planet, including the Barrier Reef, and what you say, what you do, really, really matters."
Sir David Attenborough

“And then you suddenly say, ‘No it doesn’t matter … it doesn’t matter how much coal we burn … we don’t give a damn what it does to the rest of the world’.”

During the January 2020 bushfires, Sir David told the BBC it was “palpable nonsense” for Australian politicians to deny the link between the fires and climate change.

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has called on Australia to take more responsibility on climate change. Photo: Getty

Pacific leaders

The Pacific islands are already experiencing the effects of rising sea levels, extreme weather events and collapsing ecosystems due to climate change.

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has often referred to the relationship between Australia and Pacific nations as like a family, with all countries needing to support one another.

In a 2020 interview with The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Mr Bainimarama singled out Australia alongside the US and China as “major players” who need to make stronger climate commitments.

"To anyone who may think that Australia is too small to make a real difference, there are a number of small island states in your backyard that beg to differ."
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama

Statesmen from some of the most-at risk countries in the region have also repeatedly called out Australia.

In 2019, former Tuvaluan prime minister Enele Sopoaga accused Scott Morrison of denying the effects of climate change in the Pacific.

“There is no point in making declarations after declarations every annual summit we meet and yet we are dragging our feet on that and I continue to call on my friend, Prime Minister Morrison of Australia, to do the right thing,” Mr Sopoaga later said at the Virtual Island Summit 2020.

In a 2018 opinion piece, former president of Kiribati Anote Tong accused Australia of “failing in its duty as a regional leader”.

Mr Tong has also referred to China as “the lesser of two evils” compared to Australia when it comes to providing assistance in the fight against climate change.

Greta Thunberg has slammed many countries – including Australia – for a lack of climate change urgency. Photo: Getty

Greta Thunberg

During the catastrophic bushfire season of 2019-2020, climate activists around the world sounded the alarm.

Among the most prominent voices was Swedish School Strike for Climate organiser Greta Thunberg, who was just 16 years old at the time.

"Not even catastrophes like these seem to bring any political action. How is this possible?"
Greta Thunberg

“All of this still has not resulted in any political action. Because we still fail to make the connection between the climate crisis and increased extreme weather events and nature disasters like the #AustraliaFires,” she wrote on Facebook in January 2020.

More recently, the student has taken aim at world leaders in general.

“Build back better. Blah, blah, blah. Green economy. Blah blah blah. Net zero by 2050. Blah, blah, blah,” she said at the Youth4Climate summit in Milan last month.

“This is all we hear from our so-called leaders. Words that sound great but so far have not led to action.”

Selwin Hart is a United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action. Photo: Getty

The United Nations

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called on rich countries to phase out coal by 2030.

Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Climate Action, went as far as to single out Australia during a speech at the Australian National University this year.

"If the world does not rapidly phase out coal, climate change will wreak havoc right across the Australian economy: From agriculture to tourism, and right across the services sector."
Selwin Hart, Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Climate Action

“Similarly, construction, housing and the property sector, in a country where the vast majority live on or near a coastline. It will be even more catastrophic in your neighbourhood,” Mr Hart added.

Meanwhile, a 2015 report from the Africa Progress Panel led by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan slammed Australia’s lack of climate progress.

“With one of the world’s highest levels of per capita emissions, Australia has gone from leadership to free-rider status in climate diplomacy,” it said.

Former French environment minister Laurence Tubiana is one of the key architects of the Paris Agreement. Photo: Getty

The architect of the Paris Agreement

Laurence Tubiana is a former French environment minister and current head of the European Climate Foundation.

She was one of the main architects of the Paris Agreement, and singled out Australia in 2019 for wanting to carry over old credits from previous climate goals, some of which were acquired under more lax standards.

“If you want this carry over, it is just cheating,” Ms Tubiana told the Financial Times.

"Australia was willing in a way to destroy the whole system, because that is the way to destroy the whole Paris agreement."
Laurence Tubiana, key architect of the Paris Agreement

In an opinion piece from December, Ms Tubiana put Australia’s climate inaction in perspective.

“To the rest of the world, Australia’s national-level inaction, based largely on the claim that climate is a left-right political issue, is bizarre,” she wrote.

“The world needs Australia to re-engage on climate, and Australia is better placed than most to thrive as the fifth industrial revolution kicks in.

“Or as a famous 2006 Australian advertisement said, where the bloody hell are you?”

Barack Obama mentioned Australia by name while talking about climate action. Photo: Getty

Barack Obama

During a 2014 speech at the University of Queensland, then-US President Barack Obama made the rare move of pointing out the real risks of climate change in Australia.

"Here in the Asia-Pacific nobody has more at stake when it comes to thinking about and then acting on climate change."
Barack Obama

“Here a climate that increases in temperature will mean more extreme and frequent storms, more flooding, rising seas that submerge Pacific islands.

“Here in Australia it means longer droughts, more wildfires. The incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef is threatened.”

Mr Obama also urged countries like Australia to break free of the “false choice between development and pollution”.

The Sydney Morning Herald later reported that parts of this passage were ad-libbed out of frustration over then-prime minister Tony Abbott’s climate change denial.

Fast-forward to 2021 and the Biden administration has slammed Australia’s emissions trajectory as being “insufficient”.

The OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an organisation comprising of 38 countries, including Australia.

It’s not known for diehard environmentalism, but it has nevertheless criticised Australia’s climate change policies over the years.

“The least-cost approach to meeting these emission targets would involve an economy-wide carbon price,” the organisation said in a report in September.

“However, if the political environment precludes such an approach, other existing instruments will need to be scaled up and new sector-based solutions considered.”

"Innovations are less likely to be environment-related in Australia than in other OECD countries."
The OECD

The OECD also called for the government to support the uptake of electric cars, and to ensure a just transition for Australia’s 40,000 coal industry workers.

Links

• UN’s top climate adviser says Australia must phase out coal
• Australia’s weak climate action to blame for PM’s snub at global summit
• ‘Insufficient’: Biden administration criticises Australia on climate
• Sir David Attenborough warns of climate 'crisis moment'
• OECD slams Australia for its net zero headway
• Strong climate targets make strong friendships, Fiji tells Australia
• Former Tuvalu PM hits out at US and Australian climate inaction
• While my island nation sinks, Australia is doing nothing to solve climate change - Anote Tong
• On This Day: Greta Thunberg leads 150 countries in global climate strikes
• ‘Blah, blah, blah’: Greta Thunberg lambasts leaders over climate crisis
• Australia singled out as a climate change 'free-rider' by international panel
• An analysis of the political challenges facing Scott Morrison
• A breakdown of the financial costs of climate inaction

Adapt And Grow: Australia Should Grasp The Positives Of Climate Change

Crikey - Richard Holden

There are ways to take advantage of a warmer climate that can help defray the costs.

Image: Private Media

Author Richard Holden is a professor of economics at the University of New South Wales and president-elect of the Academy of the Social Science.

COP26 in Glasgow has four core areas of discussion:

1. securing net zero
2. adaptation
3. mobilising finance
4. “work together”

The second — adaptation –is perhaps the most concrete, but also the least discussed.

 According to the official program, discussions of adaptation will revolve around working together to enable and encourage countries affected by climate change to:

• protect and restore ecosystems
• build defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives.

The first point to note about this is that adaptation is important even when we take aggressive action to reduce emissions.

In the language of economics, emissions reduction and adaptation are complements not substitutes — doing more of one makes it easier to do more of the other.

It’s going to be a lot easier to successfully build resilient infrastructure and agriculture if climate change is less bad than predicted.

And there will be more bang for the buck in working towards net zero if we can adapt more effectively to the effect of climate change from which we can’t escape.

The second point is that it’s useful to distinguish between “adaptation” and “mitigation”. No lesser a scientific authority than NASA observed that adaptation can best be described as:

Adapting to life in a changing climate. [This] involves adjusting to actual or expected future climate. The goal is to reduce our vulnerability to the harmful effects of climate change (like sea-level encroachment, more intense extreme weather events or food insecurity).

By contrast, mitigation is reducing climate change itself.

As NASA says, this “involves reducing the flow of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, either by reducing sources of these gases (for example, the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat or transport) or enhancing the “sinks” that accumulate and store these gases (such as the oceans, forests and soil)”.

Image: Private Media

If there’s a climate win to be had, let’s just take it — and worry less about the journey

Part of the goal of mitigation is to stabilise accumulated greenhouse-gas levels so that natural adaptation can take place — or at least be less severely impacted.

 Now these are conceptually different things. But distinguishing between them also points to things that countries like Australia should do differently. Parts of the country are clearly affected by changing weather patterns.

Bushfires wrought havoc just before COVID-19 hit. Droughts have been devastating — and increasingly so. The Great Barrier Reef is under grave threat. Whatever the cause, we can and must do more to reduce the effects of climate change.

When it comes to mitigation — stablising greenhouse-gas levels — Australia has a relatively little known but important scientific advantage.

The world’s oceans hold 25 times more carbon than the atmosphere, and all living plants and animals combined. Oceans used to hold even more carbon. This raises the intriguing possibility of using technology to boost oceans’ capacity to reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere.

If we want to get to net zero emissions then having significant negative emissions technologies (NETs) is crucial.

Here’s where Australia’s comparative advantage comes in. We are the main gateway to the Southern Ocean, which is the global marine environment with the greatest potential for carbon capture.

And a group of Australian and international researchers at the Centre of Innovation for Recovery of Climate Change, Australia (CIRCA) is leading a long-run initiative to develop and deploy these technologies. (Disclosure: I am a member of CIRCA.)

The idea behind ocean NETs is to manipulate algal production rates, use inorganic ocean chemistry, and develop “sea-water splitting” to release hydrogen as a fuel and capture carbon dioxide.

The basic science of this is well understood, but research on how to scale and deploy these technologies responsibly is crucial.

Australia is at the global frontier of this work.

Then there’s taking advantage of any potential upsides of a warmer climate, like longer growing seasons and increased crop yields.

That’s not to say (as certain conservative, climate denialist former prime ministers of Australia have) that these potential benefits outweigh the costs of climate change. Just that we should take what we can get from climate change — in part to help defray the cost of dealing with the downsides.

Australia has a lot of work to do — and, frankly, diplomatic ground to make up — when it comes to climate change.

But it’s worth remembering that although we might not be under the kind of threat that countries like Tuvalu or Bangladesh are from rising sea levels, we have already experienced the devastating effects of climate change.

We can and must adapt. And we are also well positioned — both geographically and scientifically — to lead efforts in mitigating these effects.

Links

• Responding to Climate Change
• If there’s a climate win to be had, let’s just take it — and worry less about the journey
• The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to human activities is the leading cause of climate change.
• Good COP or bad COP? Why the Glasgow summit is a big deal for Australia
• How the environment could save the economy, post-pandemic
• (AU The Conversation) Climate Change Means Australia May Have To Abandon Much Of Its Farming
• (AU Crikey) Morrison Government Spends On Adapting To Climate Change Rather Than Taking Action To Fight It
• (AU) New Focus On Climate Change Adaptation But No Sign Of 2050 Emissions Commitment

(AU The Conversation) Better Building Standards Are Good For The Climate, Your Health, And Your Wallet. Here’s What The National Construction Code Could Do Better

The Conversation - Trivess Moore | Alan Pears | Erika Bartak | Nicola Willand

Shutterstock

Authors Trivess Moore is Senior Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University Alan Pears is Senior Industry Fellow, RMIT University Erika Bartak is a PhD Candidate (& ESD Consultant), Melbourne School of Design, The University of Melbourne Nicola Willand is Lecturer, School of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University

The recent IPCC report highlighted we must urgently transition to a low carbon future.

One low hanging fruit is to improve the sustainability of new and existing housing.

Minimum performance and quality requirements for new housing in Australia are set via the National Construction Code.

The last significant change was in 2010 with the introduction of the six-star requirements. These requirements are at least 40% less stringent than international best practice.

A suite of proposed changes to energy efficiency section of the National Construction Code are a good step forward. However, a lot more can be done.

And improving building quality requirements isn’t just good for the climate — it also delivers enormous health benefits, slashes energy bills and makes our homes more comfortable.

Change is underway

Proposed energy efficiency changes for the National Construction Code 2022 include:

• an increase in the minimum thermal performance of homes from six stars to seven stars
• whole-of-home requirements for performance of heating, cooling, hot water, lighting and pool heating equipment
• new provisions designed to allow easy addition of on-site solar photovoltaic panels and electric vehicle charging equipment
• additional ventilation and wall vapour permeability requirements.

The Regulatory Impact Statement — a document aimed at helping government officials understand the cost-benefit impacts of a proposed regulatory change — has also been released.

Overall, it finds the costs for proposed more stringent requirements will outweigh the benefits for society.

In better news, it finds that for the majority of households, any increase in mortgage repayments from the additional costs of higher standards will be offset by a reduction in energy costs. In other words, you save so much on energy costs over time that it doesn’t matter you have to borrow more to pay for these building features.

There is critique of the Regulatory Impact Statement from stakeholders such as the Victorian government and the Green Building Council of Australia. Critics have pointed to the limited consideration of health and well-being, the impact to the energy network, and the climate emergency.

There are also issues with key economic assumptions which do not reflect environmental impacts of decisions and concerns delivery costs to households have been overestimated, potentially encouraging a “do nothing” policy position.

Public consultation is open until October 17.

Research shows homes can increase performance by one star simply changing from their worst to best orientation. Shutterstock

What do the changes mean?

The proposed changes are important steps towards reducing carbon emissions. Currently less than 5% of new housing in Australia is built to achieve seven or more stars. These changes will affect thousands of new dwellings every year.

The seven-star standard will reduce heating and cooling energy for new housing by about 24%, slashing energy bills. The changes future-proof housing by reducing costs to add renewables or electric car charging once the house is built.

And with issues of mould and condensation in Australian housing, changes will make our housing healthier.

Historically, higher standards have been met by boosting specifications like insulation and double glazing. These new standards will shift attention to cost-effective strategies like orientation and site-responsive design, as it becomes harder to achieve higher stars through specifications alone.

Research from Sustainability Victoria’s Zero Net Carbon Homes program show homes can increase performance by one star simply changing from their worst to best orientation.

There’s room for improvement

These proposed changes are a good step forward. However, more can be done.

A decade ago research and case studies showed that seven star housing was achievable for little additional costs.

YourHome and developments like The Cape make seven or more star house designs freely available, showing we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

The recently announced Green Star Homes Standard will also help to drive innovation beyond minimum performance requirements.

Our energy regulations are still measured per square metre (rather than per dwelling/person) and are predominantly concerned with operational energy demand.

To further reduce carbon emissions, we need to acknowledge the influence of house size and materials usage on total energy consumption and factor in the carbon footprint of building materials.

Additionally, the code does not use future climate data when demonstrating compliance. This means that our housing may not be fit for purpose in our future climate.

We will need more focus on summer performance. This should include performance in late summer and autumn, when the sun is lower in the sky, but extreme heat will be more likely. This will require solutions like adjustable shading.

There is little accountability across the construction industry to ensure builders comply with the design. Shutterstock

As-built verification is a critical inclusion in new schemes such as Green Star Homes; we need similar mechanisms in our construction code to ensure as-built compliance. There is no point improving regulations on paper if we can’t deliver it in practice.

While the focus of these changes is on new housing, we must not forget the millions of existing homes which need to undergo deep retrofits to improve sustainability and performance. The new standards will need careful adaptation to suit alteration and addition projects.

Tools like the National Scorecard Initiative aim to help homeowners in existing dwellings improve performance but more could be done with regulations to ensure existing housing is part of the push towards a sustainable housing future.

Links

• Low-energy homes don't just save money, they improve lives
• Sustainable housing's expensive, right? Not when you look at the whole equation
• This is the most sobering report card yet on climate change and Earth’s future. Here’s what you need to know
• Aiming for mediocrity: The case of australian housing thermal performance
• Low-energy homes don’t just save money, they improve lives
• Mould and damp health costs are about 3 times those of sugary drinks. We need a healthy housing agenda
• National Construction Code 2022 (pdf)
• Australia’s still building 4 in every 5 new houses to no more than the minimum energy standard
• Free Home Designs
• Size does matter: Australia’s addiction to big houses is blowing the energy budget
• Home energy ratings for existing homes

(BBC) Climate Change: Stop Smoke And Mirrors, Rich Nations Told

BBC - Matt McGrath

Young protesters in Milan argue that ministers aren't doing enough. EPA

Rich countries' plans to curb carbon are "smoke and mirrors" and must be urgently improved, say poorer nations.

Ministers meeting here in Milan at the final UN session before the Glasgow COP26 climate conference heard that some progress was being made.

But officials from developing countries demanded tougher targets for cutting carbon emissions and more cash to combat climate change.

One minister condemned "selfishness or lack of good faith" in the rich world.

US special envoy John Kerry said all major economies "must stretch" to do the maximum they can.

Around 50 ministers from a range of countries met here to try to overcome some significant hurdles before world leaders gather in Glasgow in November.

But for extremely vulnerable countries to a changing climate the priority is more ambitious carbon reductions from the rich, to preserve the 1.5C temperature target set by the 2015 Paris agreement.

Scientists have warned that allowing the world temperatures to rise more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is highly dangerous.

An assessment of the promises made so far to cut carbon suggests that the world is on track for around 2.7C.

Ministers from developing countries say this is just not acceptable - they are already experiencing significant impacts on their economies with warming currently just over 1C.

US special envoy John Kerry called on all richer countries to step up. Reuters

"We're already on hellish ground at 1.1C," said Simon Steill, Grenada's environment minister who argues that the plans in place just weren't good enough to prevent disaster for his island state.

"We're talking about lives, we're talking about livelihoods, they cannot apply smoke and mirrors to that."

"Every action that is taken, every decision that is taken, has to be aligned with 1.5C, we have no choice."

Some delegates felt that richer countries aren't sufficiently engaged on the issue of 1.5C, because they are wealthy enough to adapt to the changes.

"They don't care about 1.5C because if there's sea level rise, they have the means to build sea walls, and they are just remaining there in their high walls of comfort," said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Some countries are willing to do things but they don't have the means, some have the means but are not willing to do things. Now how do we find the right choreography?"

On this question of choreography, ministers were in agreement that the G20 group of countries should be leading the dance.

Alok Sharma is the UK minister in charge of COP26. Reuters

Mr Kerry called on India and China, who are part of the G20, to put new carbon plans on the table before leaders gather in Glasgow. "All G20 countries, all large economies, all need to try to stretch to do more," he told the gathering.

"I'm not singling out one nation over another. But I am encouraging all of us to try to do the maximum we can."

Analysis Victoria Gill, science correspondent The mood on the street in Milan could not have contrasted more sharply with the formal, political roundtable discussions inside the PreCOP26 conference. On Friday, students and activists marched to the doors of the conference venue - banners waving and arms linked in a human wall to protect Greta Thunberg, who led the procession. There were cheers of: "We are unstoppable, another world is possible". And just one day after sharing the stage with world leaders, and after meeting the Italian prime minister, 18-year-old Greta told a cheering crowd: "We are sick of their blah blah blah and sick of their lies." Meanwhile, behind the concrete walls of the conference hall on Saturday, ministers were cautiously optimistic that their discussions had laid crucial foundations for the UN climate meeting in November. As he brought the meeting to a close, Alok Sharma, president for the much-anticipated COP26 in Glasgow, assured me that there was now a tangible "sense of urgency". "It's this set of world leaders that are deciding the future," he said. "We're going to respond to what we've heard here from young people."

One of the biggest remaining hurdles to progress remains the question of finance. The richer world promised to pay developing nations $100bn a year from 2020.

That figure hasn't yet been met and while ministers here were confident it would be achieved in Glasgow, the failure to land the money is eroding trust.

"Everything we need to do, we know what that is, and now it's just a question of who's going to be paying for it, who is going to be willing to share their technology," said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu.

"And that's where the problem is. So there seems to be at times selfishness or lack of good faith."

Despite these reservations, the UK minister tasked with delivering success in Glasgow was in positive mood after the meeting in Milan. "I think we go forward to Glasgow with a spirit of co-operation," said Alok Sharma.

"I do not want to underestimate the amount of work that is required but I think there is a renewed urgency in our discussions."

However there are significant hurdles to clear before leaders arrive in Glasgow and technical questions about carbon markets and transparency are still unresolved.

"We need to change. And we need to change radically, we need to change fast," said EU vice-president Frans Timmermans. "And that's going to be bloody hard."

Links

• COP26
• Money on the agenda at Milan climate talks
• Youth have right to be angry on climate, UK PM says
• Australia PM may skip COP26 climate summit
• (CNN) Australia's Climate Policy Is Being Dictated By A Former Accountant In A Cowboy Hat
• (AU SMH) While The 2050 Battle Rages In Australia, The World Is Talking 2030
• (CNET) Climate Change: COP26 Is The Biggest Conference In The World. Here's Why It Matters
• (The Guardian) The Climate Crisis Has Sparked An Economic Arms Race – And Australia Cannot Afford To Stay Idle
• (ABC) Crowdfunded Billboards At World Climate Conference To Take Aim At The Australian Government
• (CNN) Australia's Scott Morrison Under Climate Pressure At Home As Biggest State Boosts Targets